By Andrew Benson
BBC Sport at Silverstone
Lewis Hamilton answered his critics and got his title campaign back on track with a superb British Grand Prix win.
The McLaren driver mastered changeable conditions, and his team made the right tactical calls, as his main rivals had a day to forget.
Hamilton is now tied on points at the head of the championship with Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, who finished fourth and 13th.
Nick Heidfeld took second for BMW ahead of Rubens Barrichello's Honda.
Hamilton's victory was possibly the best race of his short career, and it was a much-needed fillip after he had failed to score points in the previous two races.
The Englishman had been under pressure heading to Silverstone, and looked to be feeling it when he made mistakes on his qualifying laps to end up only fourth on the grid.
But the rain gave him a chance to showcase his superlative natural talent, and he grabbed it with both hands.
Hamilton made a superb start from his fourth place on the grid and took the lead from team-mate Heikki Kovalainen on lap five.
He quickly pulled out an advantage, but was soon back under pressure from Raikkonen, who passed Kovalainen when the McLaren spun on lap 10 and began to eat into Hamilton's lead.
The decisive moment of the race came on lap 21, when Hamilton and Raikkonen came in for their first fuel and tyre stops.
McLaren changed Hamilton's intermediate wet-weather tyres for fresh ones, while Ferrari - gambling it would stay dry - left Raikkonen's used set on.
Within a lap, though, it had started to rain again, and Raikkonen suddenly started struggling with a catastrophic lack of grip.
Hamilton, knowing he could effectively win the race there and then, piled on the pressure, and by lap 26 was 21.8 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, who then lost his second place to Kovalainen.
Already, it was clear that Hamilton pretty much had the race under control.
But the weather remained difficult to predict, though, and McLaren had another tough call to make when Hamilton came in for his second pit stop on lap 38, with the rain beginning to come down much harder.
They fitted Hamilton with a new set of intermediates - even though conditions were bad enough for Honda to call both its drivers in and fit them with "extreme" wets in what would turn out to be a successful attempt to conjur an unexpected good result.
The conditions were treacherous - a number of drivers spun off at this stage of the race, including Button's Honda - but Hamilton continued on his serene way, by now almost a minute ahead of Heidfeld.
The German came under pressure from Rubens Barrichello's Honda, which was the fastest car on the soaking track thanks to its tyres.
The Brazilian passed Heidfeld for second place on lap 43, but he was forced to pit again on lap 46 because a refuelling problem at his second stop meant that the team had not been able to fill his car up with enough fuel.
Heidfeld, driving a smooth and error-free race, was now out of touch in second, but Barrichello rejoined in third, a position he held to the end of the race, and tribute to both his renowned wet-weather skills and the tactical nous of new Honda team boss Ross Brawn.
The Englishman, who masterminded so many of Michael Schumacher's brilliant victories for Ferrari, again displayed his midas touch when it comes to F1 tactics.
Raikkonen, who spun twice during the race, recovered in the closing laps to take fourth place, winning a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle with Alonso.
The Spaniard also lost out in an equally robust battle with Kovalainen, who grabbed fifth place from the Renault with two laps to go.
Williams's Kazuki Nakajima and Toyota's Jarno Trulli took the remaining points positions in seventh and eighth places.
Massa had his worst race of the season, spinning five times on his way to a position as last of the finishers.
(BBC)
<< Back